So the solution offered to the OP is don't take stupid missions in systems where you will sit and wait because the SC mechanic is lame (oh wait space is really big so wasing your time watching an SC screen is "immersive" game play).
I don't agree that the best method is to accept bad gameplay, or to "make believe" and accept the miraculous wonders of the bounding box approximating what space is really like where you sit and wait for 10-90 minutes literally doing nothing.
SC for larger systems needs to be fixed. Either acceleration curves, mini-jumps, or some time-dilation mode needs to occur.
Time dilation is out. Supercruise was developed to replace the time acceleration in the original single player games because you can't change the actual time in a multiplayer game.
Acceleration curves - we already have many players who overshoot targets still with a fixed and obviously slower SC. I do think that having everyone with the same SC speed possibilities has its problems, but I don't think adjusting what our ships can do will fix the OP problem of large systems without causing other issues closer in.
So minijumps - some people are against it for a good reason. If you make all places easy to get to, then space doesn't seem that large any more. If you make it so a few key pressed and one can jump from system to system, then to planet, then to station...well, open space between becomes something few bother with, and you're just going from listed place to listed place. But some of these binaries/tri/etc systems are pretty large and ignored for that reason, so how can we keep SC as a normal traveled area but also open up the far reaches of systems? How about a minijump that has its own cost in place of reducing travel time? Here's my suggestion:
To jump to a main star now we target it through various means and activate our drive. Let's say that if we activate our drive without a targeted system, the drive is put into a mode where how long we spool up determines the distance we jump. So it's up to us to judge how far we need to throw ourselves in the direction we're pointing.
In this mode the drive is ignoring a gravity well lock, because that would be the main star, not anywhere else. Given that, there's going to be inaccuracy in distance and direction. Picture a vague cone that radiates out from the ship in the direction you're pointing - the farther you jump, the more error in where you end up. But, it'll get you closer, and that's the main goal.
A jump will require drive cooldown, and it will leave a wake that can be followed. But pirates/bounty hunters, this adds a choice. You could follow the wake, or you could guess where they're jumping (knowing it's a minijump wake) and try to jump yourself to get ahead or at their location.
I do think something is needed, for the reasons I gave, but I don't think they have to be instant gratification and defeat what SC was set up to be, an in-system interaction playing area.